Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

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[MosJan]

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Le Figaro: French parliament initiates creation of Commission on
Investigating Azerbaijan’s “suspicious” ties with MPs

POLITICS 15:04 29/06/2016

French Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) party intends to
create a Commission on Investigating Bilateral Relations between
France and Azerbaijan. The reason is the intricate diplomatic
situation, the website of the French newspaper Le Figaro writes

According to the newspaper, the relations between France and
Azerbaijan can be marred after the UDI initiates the creation of the
investigating committee of“evaluating political, economic, and
diplomatic relations between France and Azerbaijan” in the National
Assembly.

The Foreign Affairs Committee in the Palais Bourbon has included the
project in the agenda. Élisabeth Guigou – a socialist politician and
the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly
– will consider the appeal on Wednesday. The French diplomats will
reportedly testify under oath.

As a response, Azerbaijan has mobilized its numerous political
supporters from the Parliamentary Friendship Group. It is reminded
that in September of 2015, the close and opaque ties between several
French MPs and the Azerbaijani authorities were uncovered in the Cash
Investigation TV program on France 2 channel.

Le Figaro highlights that six French MPs, auto sport fans, were
invited to Baku to Formula 1 European Grand Prix. There, they met the
Azerbaijani authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev. MP Jean-François
Mancel, who had been incriminated in violations, was also among them.
In his turn, Elchin Amirbekov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Paris,
threatened with crisis in diplomatic relations. He sent letters to all
the UDI MPs with warnings about diplomatic and economic consequences
of the creation of the Committee.

Earlier, it has been reported numerous times about the bribery of
foreign politicians and lobbyist organizations by the Azerbaijani
authorities for promoting their interests abroad. For example, the
Italian media recently reported that the Office of Public Prosecutor
of Milan accused Luca Volonte – the former head of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE)faction of the European
People’s Party–in accepting bribe of 2 million 390 thousands of euros
for conducting political activities in the interests of the
Azerbaijani authorities.

Moreover, according to the American journal Foreign Policy, the
registration documents of the Azerbaijani government and its American
lobbyists show that in 2014, the country and those acting on its
behalf spent$4 million on efforts to win influence among think tanks
and lawmakers. It was noted that in February 2015, the Azerbaijani
embassy increased the monthly fee of its main lobbyist, Podesta Group,
from $50,000 to $75,000. The Podesta Group registration documents
exposed hundreds of contracts with the Congress, executive
authorities’ agencies, media, and investigating centers. Later,
Azerbaijan managed to win influence in Washington, and many
congressmen started to make statements in Azerbaijan’s favor. At the
same time, the documented violations of the presidentIlhamAliyev’s
regime against its own citizens were not mentioned in those
statements.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.lefigaro.fr_politique_le-2Dscan_coulisses_2016_06_28_25006-2D20160628ARTFIG00127-2Dun-2Dprojet-2Dde-2Dcommission-2Dd-2Denquete-2Dsur-2Dl-2Dazerbaidjan-2Dcree-2Ddes-2Dremous-2Da-2Dl-2Dassemblee.php&d=DQIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=2gDjQwqikpd6t3pvBfpenwRk8urDW9s8T7LQmi0h1Nw&s=Z-KUCZMd3ZzALTlh2TjeDrGx6PY5v3im-yaf99BNN8I&e=


https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.panorama.am_en_news_2016_06_29_Le-2DFigaro_1604608&d=DQIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=2gDjQwqikpd6t3pvBfpenwRk8urDW9s8T7LQmi0h1Nw&s=h8C28WSe_1vTrwlU7bJqXHE0OfQ3xhNLphHXZMhzpj8&e=

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http://panorama.am/news_images/555/1663729_3/64.thumb.jpg

12:57 21/10/2016 World

WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton intended to raise money for campaign from Azerbaijan’s lobbyists

The US presidential candidate,Hillary Clinton, and her campaign chair, John Podesta, discussed the appropriateness of fundraising from foreign lobbyists for campaign, including from people lobbying for Azerbaijan, Russian Today reports citing Clinton’s emails with Podesta published by WikiLeaks.

According to the article, particularly long email thread discusses what the campaign might do about donations from “foreign agents” – people acting on behalf of foreign entities such as governments. It is highlighted that in April of last year,John Podesta was in an email chain along with a number of key campaign figures over whether to allow those lobbying on behalf of foreign governments to raise money for the campaign.

It was also noted that Tony Podesta – John’s brother, who lobbies for Iraq, Egypt and Azerbaijan among many others – was included in the list of people, with whom Clinton’s campaign figures wanted to collaborate in raising money.

Brothers Tony and John Podesta head the lobbying organization “Podesta Group”, which is Azerbaijan’s main lobbyist in the USA. In February 2015, Azerbaijan’s embassy in the USA increased the organization’s monthly fee from $50000 to $75000.

Reportedly, “Podesta Group’s” registration documents uncovered hundreds of contracts with the US Congress offices, executive agencies, media outlets, and research centers, as a result of which Azerbaijan could “buy influence” in Washington, and many congressmen started to issue statements in favor of the official Baku. At the same time, the well-documented violations of the presidentIlhamAliyev’s regime towards its citizens were not mentioned in any statement.

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/10/21/WikiLeaks/1663729

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Caviar diplomacy” scandal explodes in Italy - Rai TV’s sensational report

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13:19, 22 November, 2016

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy became a criminally punishable act for the first time.

The Italian Rai TV Channel published a report on Italian MP Luca Volontè’s pro-Azerbaijani activity and bribery, reports “Armenpress”

The report says the Milan Police and Prosecution launched a criminal case against Luca Volontè in February, 2016, who is a former MP of the Christian-Democratic Party and is the former Chairman of the EPP faction at PACE.

Volontè is accused of taking a bribe of 2.4 million Euros from Azerbaijan in 2012-2013. Instead, he was being used by official Baku in the Italian Parliament and the PACE.

Head of the Azerbaijani delegation at PACE Elkhan Suleymanov transferred the money to Volontè, and the coordination works were carried out by the Brussels-based Azerbaijani lobbying organization.

The criminal case launched against Volontè is comprised of two parts: Bribery and money laundering. It is important to state that Volontè keeps silent and refuses to talk with the investigators.

The report prepared by the Italian Rai TV Channel includes a wide geography, being shot in Rome, Milan, Strasbourg, Brussels, Nagorno Karabakh, as well as in Yerevan. The shooting crew was not allowed to enter Baku. The Azerbaijani leadership explained their such decision with a reason that in 1992 editor-in-chief of a shooting program was making a report in Nagorno Karabakh bringing facts about bombarding the civilian targets by Azerbaijan.

Although the shooting crew was unable to enter Baku, they used in the report the interviews with the former Azerbaijani political prisoners, including also the interview with Khadija Ismayilova.

A group of Italian MPs also have speeches in the report with explosive content. Head of Italy-Azerbaijan friendship group was also interviewed. He ends the interview by stating that if journalists are jailed in Italy for several months, the large part of their issues will be considered as solved.

In the report there are also references to the Four-day war in April, 2016. The report says this is the first criminal case in the PACE countries under the topic of caviar diplomacy.

Volontè has not been re-elected in the 2013 October elections, thereafter, the Azerbaijani side has changed its “caviar target”.

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/868836/%E2%80%9Ccaviar-diplomacy%E2%80%9D-scandal-explodes-in-italy---rai-tv%E2%80%99s-sensational-report.html

[MosJan]

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Spanish website lists Azerbaijan’s President among 48 dictators of the world

14:55, 29 Nov 2016

Siranush Ghazanchyan

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The Spanish website lainformacion.com has listed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev among the 48 dictators of the world.

“In 1993, the democratically-elected President Abulfaz Elchibey was overthrown by a military insurrection led by Colonel Surat Huseynov, which resulted in the arrival of Heydar Aliyev,” the website writes.

In 2003, Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father as president and his government has been charged with maintaining many of the policies of his predecessor, as well as seeking greater openness to the West and turning Azerbaijan into an industrialized nation.

According to the publication, to date the country has not fulfilled its commitments. “Although its constitution allows conscientious objectors to opt for alternative civilian service, the Government has not yet adopted a law to establish this alternative to military service. Conscientious objectors are currently being pursued, and there are reports of prolonged illegal detentions in military barracks.”

The leaders of Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are also included in the list.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2016/11/29/spanish-website-lists-azerbaijans-president-among-48-dictators-of-the-world/

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Netanyahu Hails Baku Ties as ‘Beacon of Jewish-Muslim Coexistence’

13/12/16

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (right) greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Baku on Dec. 13

BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN

Aliyev hails $5 billion weapons purchase from Israel

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday has hailed cooperation with Azerbaijan as a beacon of Jewish and Muslim coexistence during his visit to Baku, which some in Israel are calling “historic.” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cited his country’s purchase of almost $5 billion in weapons as a sign of that truly unholy “coexistence.”

“The world sees so much intolerance and darkness, this [Tel Aviv Baku cooperation] is an example of how the Muslim-Jewish relationship can and should be everywhere,” Netanyahu was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying during the first leg of his trip to Muslim nations in an effort to bolster security and diplomatic ties.

During the same press conference at Baku’s Zagulba Palace, Aliyev took the opportunity to boast about the ongoing military cooperation with Israel and the purchase of those weapons, which were used during Azerbaijan’s aggressive attack on Karabakh last April.

“To give you one figure to illustrate how broad this cooperation is, so far the contracts between Azerbaijani and Israeli companies with respect to purchasing of defense equipment is close to $5 billion. To be more precise, $4.85 billion,” said Aliyev who acknowledged that Baku was open to further weapons purchases from Tel Aviv.

With a dowry of $5 billion in weapons, Netanyahu’s visit to Baku consummated that marriage and only time will tell what menacing fruits it will bear.

Netanyahu, whose government has yet to recognize the crime of Genocide against the Armenians, has opted to align himself– and the Jewish State—with another a criminal regime whose actions thus far have been nothing but barbaric.

The more than 100 soldiers and civilians in Artsakh who were brutally killed when Azerbaijan launched its attack in April seem to have been the beneficiaries of Netanyahu’s so-called “Jewish-Muslim coexistence.”

Simply put, Netanyahu and Israel have blood on their hands.

http://asbarez.com/158092/netanyahu-hails-baku-ties-as-beacon-of-jewish-muslim-coexistence/

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Israel Should Stop Selling Weapons to Azerbaijan

15/12/16

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Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Dec. 13, 2016 (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

BY YARON WEISS

The Israeli government’s support for Azerbaijan is unacceptable and disgraceful. Many Israelis are concerned about the cooperation between Israel and one of the darkest dictatorships in the world. Earlier this year, Zehava Galon, one of the leaders of the opposition in Israel, accused Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Defense Minister, as a “foreign agent” collaborating with the government of Azerbaijan.

Many Israelis feel empathy and solidarity towards Armenia. The two nations have suffered genocide. Armenia is a small country surrounded by enemies as Israel. However, the Israeli government’s policy is the opposite of the feelings of Israeli citizens. It seems that the Israeli government sells its values for money.

Netanyahu warned the world that Iran is a dangerous country and threatens to exterminate Israel. He demands to impose sanctions on Iran. But at the same time, he sells weapons to Azerbaijan who threatens Armenia.

Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia is similar to Iran’s aggression against Israel.

Even in the past, Israel has sold weapons to dictatorships. As a result, oppressed nations began to hate Israel. Everyone remembers the cooperation between Israel and South Africa during apartheid regime. It is no coincidence that South Africa’s Goverment is hostile toward Israel.

In the seventies, Israel sold weapons to the Shah of Iran. Later, the weapons turned against Israel. This is what is likely to happen with Israeli weapons in Azerbaijan.

Two months ago, I visited in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), and met a courageous and determined people. Nothing in the world will change the fact that Artsakh has been and will be forever Armenian. No drones and no sophisticated weapon systems can subdue the courage of the Armenians. We will continue to demand that the Israeli government stop selling weapons to Azerbaijan. We will continue to demand that the Israeli government will adopt a moral foreign policy. It is proven that relationships between countries based on shared values persist for a long time.

We have seen in the past that giving priority to material interests alone without moral partnership do not hold for long. I believe that in the end, common sense will prevail.

The question is, how many victims will there be until that time?

http://asbarez.com/158183/israel-should-stop-selling-weapons-to-azerbaijan/

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Ha'aretz, Israel

Dec 16 2016

Opinion

Netanyahu Cozies Up to Despots as He Degrades Israel’s Democratic Culture

PM Netanyahu says Israel is being ‘courted’, not shunned, around the world, so is there more to his choice to gravitate towards states, such as Azerbaijan, that show appalling contempt for democratic norms? | Opinion

Dahlia Scheindlin Dec 16, 2016 4:53 PM

- Azerbaijan's president: We've bought almost $5 billion in Israeli military goods

- Israeli arms sales, big oil and the Mossad: Why is Azerbaijan hosting a Hanukkah party at Trump Hotel?

- Opinion U.S. Jews must not legitimize hate by attending Trump tower Hanukkah party

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.759501.1481900943!/image/3366018817.jpg_gen/derivatives/size_936xAuto/3366018817.jpgPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on December 14, 2016.

Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted everyone to know that his visit to Azerbaijan, part of a Central Asia mini-tour, was a foreign relations victory. Netanyahu said the visit proves that Israel is not shunned but “courted”; he boasted of winning trust from a Muslim-majority state, and of deepening bilateral relations including now-open, robust arms sales. Media coverage dutifully treated this as a foreign affairs story, looking at regional implications, especially vis-à-vis Iran.

In the same week, over in Washington D.C., the pre-eminent U.S. Jewish and pro-Israel umbrella group, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, co-hosted a “Hanukkah party celebrating religious freedom and diversity” with the Embassy of Azerbaijan, an unprecedented co-production (which was criticized in many quarters of the U.S. Jewish community).

The criticism in the U.S. highlighted something important: the disturbing implications of this visit for domestic governing policies and trends in both countries.

In a recent paper comparing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the 25-year old Azerbaijan/Armenia conflict, I observed that both sides of each conflict are facing either a severe democracy deficit or significant erosion, to varying levels. Conflict and damage to democratic society appear closely linked.

Cozying up to Azerbaijan means embracing a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. Azerbaijan has hurtled down a deeply anti-democratic, semi-authoritarian path since independence in 1991. Its Freedom House ratings are now among the lowest possible: “Not Free,” or 16 on a scale from 0-100, deteriorating even compared to the previous year. Human rights workers, political opposition figures and journalists are regularly arrested, jailed, and face physical violence. The country is run through a corrupt, dynastic leadership, by the son of an earlier corrupt, semi-authoritarian leader.

Israel’s embrace of unsavory allies is nothing new. In earlier decades, during the Arab boycott, the Cold War and its own wars, Israel cultivated willing friends regardless of regime type; realpolitik trumped idealism, in international relations parlance. Thus Israel was close with Nicolae Ceaucescu’s Romania and Idi Amin’s Uganda, and counted apartheid South Africa as an ally too. Nor does Israel lack less-than-democratic allies today, cultivating strategic relations with Turkey and Russia, who display appalling contempt for democratic norms. Moreover, Netanyahu is on a search for new friends in response to creeping political pressure from traditional allies in Europe, to show that Israel doesn’t depend solely on their markets. He has nurtured African states and BRIC countries, and clearly views Central Asia as logical strategic addition.

But what makes Azerbaijan notable is how the protracted ethno-territorial conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh contributes to such a severely restricted political environment at home, justifying and perhaps perpetuating these practices.

Karabakh is a small pocket of territory inside Azerbaijan’s sovereign borders. As the Soviet Union fell apart, its majority Armenian population sought to break away from Azerbaijan, preferring to attach themselves to adjacent Armenia, as the republics became independent.

Azerbaijan was enraged at what it experienced as an attempt to dismember its territory. A vicious war broke out from 1991-1994, killing over 20,000 people, creating roughly 1 million refugees (the majority of them Azerbaijani). The resulting stalemate left the political status of Karabakh unresolved to this day. The population there is now almost exclusively Armenian after the flight of the Azeri minority; Armenians there are effectively self-governing, often considered a state-like entity but unrecognized by any other country. Yet Azerbaijan still seethes at the de facto loss of a part of its sovereign, national land.

Immediately after the war, newly-independent Azerbaijan began investing heavily in military armament, flush with oil money from its Caspian Sea fields. This build-up contributed to a mentality of conflict escalation, and there are regular skirmishes along what is called the “Line of Contact” with Karabakh.

The obsession with its territorial loss also fed an increasingly repressive political climate. By the mid-2000s, observers noted that local politicians competed for the most hard-line positions on the conflict. In the name of the existential cause, authorities cracked down on political protest over perceived electoral misconduct. The regime said that “Azerbaijan’s defeat in the war had been due to domestic turmoil,” in the words of Rasim Musabayov, a former advisor to the Azerbaijani leadership.

Leveraging the conflict to crush freedoms spread to other fields. In 2016, Freedom House reported that at least one journalist was jailed on charges of spying for Armenia; academics and students associated with political opposition have been likewise harassed or fired. In 2012, a nationally celebrated writer, Akram Aylisli, published a novella that included Azeri killings of Armenians during the conflict; politicians went on a rampage of incitement, calling to investigate his DNA (perhaps he was actually part Armenian?) and cut off his ear. He was stripped of his titles, his books burned, family members lost their jobs, and his work removed from educational curriculum. This past March, Azerbaijani authorities detained him on his way to a writer’s festival in Italy – part of a trend, say local sources.

Luckily Israel is nowhere near that level. But what if it’s a difference of degree rather than substance? In recent years, a department at Ben Gurion University was hounded by the state’s Council of Higher Education for its political leanings and novelist Dorit Rabinyan saw calls for her book involving a Jewish-Arab romance to be removed from school curriculum, along with the accompanying public vitriol. Governments Netanyahu has led have passed Israel’s most undemocratic laws to date, almost always involving some aspect of the conflict: the Nakba law, the boycott law and restrictive laws designed to target Arabs in Israel (the admissions committees law for small communities and the muezzin bill currently under debate.)

The infamous NGO law attempts to intimidate independent civil society groups who defend human rights and criticize government policy specifically regarding the conflict, echoing the tendency in Azerbaijan to harass human rights activity (in harsh ways), and snuff out government criticism.

Israel’s democratic culture is more tenuous now than in the past. Netanyahu obsessively portrays the occupation as an existential threat from Palestinians, but he also increasingly fuses Israeli left-wing opposition with the scariest physical threats of our time. His 2015 campaign ad accused the left of bringing ISIS to Jerusalem. When the head of B’tselem spoke recently at United Nations against the occupation, Likud coalition whip David Bitan called to strip him of his citizenship. He then suggested that Arab citizens shouldn’t be allowed to vote because they represent “Palestinian interests.” After Netanyahu’s infamous “Arabs voting in droves” video there’s little question who inspired, or legitimized Bitan.

All these together don’t put Israel nearly at the level of Azerbaijan in terms of the democratic deficit. And it’s important to recall that Azerbaijan had little culture of democracy prior to independence; Israel inside the Green Line has certainly does.

But the parallels between the role of the conflicts within each society doesn’t bode well. Both conflicts are viewed as existential threats to the very identity of the country. Both are heavily militarized – Azerbaijan with the help of Israeli arms sales – and have made military acquisition a top national and budget priority, often to the detriment of other social priorities. That in turn must be justified by fearmongering or warmongering in the national rhetoric. Both experience regular deadly escalations. In April 2016, a mini-war over Nagorno-Karabakh caused hundreds of deaths on both sides; Israel experiences stabbing attacks and regular wars. These serve to keep the trauma fresh, the threat level high, and dissent toxic.

The old adage may be newly, and sadly relevant: “Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are” – or who in the future, whom you may become.

Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin is a Policy Fellow at the Mitvim Institute, researching comparative conflict dynamics. She is also a public opinion expert and an adjunct lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Follow her on Twitter: @dahliasc

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.759499

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Caviar diplomacy investigation leads to PACE President Agramunt, report uncovers European officials on Azerbaijani payroll

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16:30, 19 December, 2016

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. The European Stability Initiative published “The European Swamp: Caviar Diplomacy Part 2” investigative report. The report reveals the organized corruption mechanisms of the Azerbaijani leadership, which included dozens of high ranking European officials.

People serving for the interest of Azerbaijan include Italian lawmaker in PACE Luca Volonte, who has been held accountable for by the Italian Prosecution.

Agreeing to assist the investigation, Volonte disclosed many names of European political figures, who were on the payroll of Azerbaijan. The investigation also leads to Pedro Agramunt, the current President of PACE.

Personally Volonte had received 3 million Euros from Azerbaijan for lobbying services. Volonte transferred some of the amount to other lawmakers. Due to these payments, the lawmakers voted against the resolutions and proposals in the Council of Europe condemning human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

The 20 page report includes those Azerbaijani parliamentarians, who are involved in the dirt games and can also be held accountable for in Europe.

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/872413/caviar-diplomacy-investigation-leads-to-pace-president-agramunt-report-uncovers-european-officials.html

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Talysh people subject to genocide in Azerbaijan – says Talysh politician

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18:26, 27 December, 2016

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Politicians and public figures representing Talysh national minority in Azerbaijan presented the violence carried out against them in Azerbaijan during a round-table discussion headlined “Talysh people: history and modern trends” on December 27. The event was organized by the joint efforts of YSU’s Department of Iranian Studies and the Talysh National Movement with the support of “Voice of Talyshistan” radio. Leader of Talysh national movement Alakram Hummetzode highlighted the dialogue between the Armenian and Talysh peoples. According to him, the two peoples must strengthen the scientific and cultural cooperation and today’s round-table is another step taken for the strengthening of relations. He introduced the main goal of the Talysh national movement: to conduct reforms in Azerbaijan and obtain autonomy.

“The voice of the Talysh people has been heard by numerous countries despite the impediments by Azerbaijani authorities. The number of the supporters of our movement increases day by day. The entire Azerbaijani people has become a hostage in the hands of Azerbaijani leadership”, “Armenpress” reports Alakram Hummetzode saying.

Ismail Shabanov, President of the Talysh Diaspora of Russia, member of Russian Council on interethnic relations introduced the problems of the Talysh Diaspora and stated that they constantly face obstacles created by Azerbaijani authorities. But he added that they desire to restore their motherland and no one can hamper them in that path.

“If the people of Nagorno Karabakh had not made their right choice back then, they would be suffering now like us, maybe worse. We did not engage in war, and what did we get in response? Where is that so-called fraternity? In this context the people of Nagorno Karabakh was cleverer than we were. I wish them success”, the President of the Talysh Diaspora said.

According to Ismail Shabanov, the territories inhabited by the Talysh people are forcefully preserved within the territory of Azerbaijan. He stated that a biological warfare is conducted against the Talysh people.

“A genocide is underway there by the use of disseminating different types of diseases. A question arises. Why does the number of the Talysh people decline? It is not a natural phenomenon and they should not think that these acts will remain unanswered. We receive hundreds of letters every day about the situation there. The law enforcement bodies spread narcotics and weapons among the Talysh populations in great quantities”, Shabanov stated.

According to the Chairman of the Committee on the Rights of the Talysh people Zaharaddeen Ibrahim, the entire Azerbaijani people is dissatisfied with the Azerbaijani regime. “They just have no chances to change it since any act to show dissatisfaction, even peaceful protests, are persecuted, people are arrested. I am convinced this clan has to step down. This is merely a matter of time”, Zaharaddeen Ibrahim announced.

Chair of Iranian Studies department Vardan Voskanyan highlighted the fact that the political elite of the Talysh people appreciate Armenian contribution to political movements of the Talysh people and in this context noted that Armenia is a type of regional super-power, since it is able to control some political processes in hostile Azerbaijan.

According to him, Armenian and Talysh people are the most ancient peoples in the region which had already established relations before the emergence of the Turkish element in the region.

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/873451/talysh-people-subject-to-genocide-in-azerbaijan-%E2%80%93-says-talysh-politician.html

[Yervant1]

Criminal "Silence of Lambs"

Monday, 26 December 2016


On the eve of the new year of 2017, the Azerbaijani leadership received a remarkable "Christmas gift" from Europe. The European Stability Initiative (ESI) NGO has recently published the second part of its report named "Caviar Diplomacy: the European Swamp”.

Let’s note that in 2012, the ESI published a report on "Caviar Diplomacy", which uncovered the mechanism created by the Baku authorities to bribe high-ranking European politicians lobbying for the interests of Azerbaijan. And although the report caused a great resonance, however, no drastic changes took place then. Apparently, the Caspian black caviar, jewelry and generous cash rewards, which flew to "elected" politicians of the West, outweighed the democratic principles and humanitarian values of Europe.

As a result, corruption, in fact, has become the major tool of the Azerbaijani diplomacy. However, it isn’t surprising, because it took deep roots in Azerbaijan yet during the Soviet reign of the current President's father. It is known that, as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev launched a kind of conveyor system of bribing the owners of high offices of the Kremlin, through which valuable gifts flew to Moscow, thanks to which he paved his way to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. As we can see, the rich experience of his father was useful for Ilham, but in new political conditions. The Azerbaijani crown prince inherited from his father not only the power, but also the vicious methods of work that are alien to human morality. Baku’s totalitarian regime was not limited to gross violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms in its own country. To protect itself from harsh criticism and possible political consequences, official Baku actually exported corrupt practices to the structures of the Council of Europe. The foreign policy, aptly named "caviar diplomacy", took the ugliest forms in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where the Azerbaijani authorities, through "huge financial investments", forced foreign politicians to be silent.

The point of this scandal is connected with the exposure of the PACE members, whom official Baku bribed so that they failed Christopher Strasser's report on the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan. The ESI report included the texts of correspondences of Azerbaijani MPs with some PACE members from different countries, who actively defended in this structure the position of Baku on denying the facts of human rights violation. One of the corrupt MEPs was Luca Volonte, who visited Azerbaijan and received generous cash transfers for several years. In 2011, his task was to launch a campaign of criticism against Christopher Strasser for his report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, resulting in its failure. While in 2012 Azerbaijan, which fiercely rejected such accusations, managed to hush up the scandal, this time the ESI presented stronger evidence of its accusations, including the activity of those who actively denies the facts of corruption. Currently, the police is studying Volonte's correspondence with the Azerbaijani MPs, which clearly testifies to his bribery and implementation of the direct instructions by his Baku bosses. For the four years of cooperation with the Azerbaijani authorities, about 3 million Euro was transferred to Volonte's accounts. Euro. It is no accident that the report "Caviar Diplomacy - 2" begins with such a title - "Human Rights are for Sale".

It is important to note that the leaderships of Armenia and Artsakh have repeatedly warned the European structures about the danger of turning these structures into ordinary markets, where democratic values, or more precisely - the human morality are sold for caviar and money. By its dirty methods Azerbaijanhas actually undermined the system of democratic standards created in Europe for decades. We can say that justice as the supreme value became a bargaining chip, which the dirty European officials paid for the generous handouts by the Aliyev regime. As a result, they turned a blind eye to the flagrant violations of human rights in Azerbaijan and kept criminal silence. But, the "silence of lambs" was far more dangerous in the situations related to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

Today, when the second part of the report by the European Stability Initiative is published, the name of the current Chairman of the PACE, Spanish MP Pedro Agramunt, has emerged in the wake of the scandal. It turns out that in addition to Volonte, Baku intensively cooperated with him, calling to block Strasser's report and the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in general. It was Don Pedro that before and after his appointment as the head of the organization conducted openly anti-Armenian activities and frustrated the speeches of the PACE members from Armenia, actively promoting the adoption of pro-Azerbaijani resolutions on Nagorno Karabakh.

Four years ago, the political leadership of Azerbaijan managed to emerge unscathed. What will happen this time? At least, the ESI is determined. The report suggests the demand to raise the issue of depriving the Azerbaijani delegation the right to vote at the PACE January session. It also stresses the need to raise the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan and to put once again the report by Strasser to the vote or to appoint a new rapporteur on this issue, recommending, at the same time, the Prosecutor's Offices of France, Spain, Germany and other countries to investigate the facts of bribing MPs from these countries by Azerbaijan.


Leonid MARTIROSYAN
Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper

http://artsakhtert.com/eng/editors-column/item/6698-criminal-silence-of-lambs

[Yervant1]

Bloomberg

Jan 3 2017

Azeri Oil Money Got a Pass From This Ethics Committee

Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.

Jan 3, 2017 12:55 PM EST

Leonid Bershidsky

After criticism from President-elect Donald Trump Congressional Republicans backed down from their decision Tuesday to silence and subjugate the quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Assuming they stick to the reversal, that's fortunate -- even if not for the reasons Trump had in mind when he tweeted his dismay at the original plan. The OCE was a rare entity that exposed the goings-on in the Washington "swamp" that Trump promised to drain -- including the inner workings of some shady alliances that have undermined America's moral authority and standing as a global values arbiter.

One of the OCE's most high-profile investigations concerned Azerbaijan, a small, oil-rich post-Soviet nation that has more people recognized as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International than Russia and Belarus combined. Azerbaijan is a hereditary dictatorship: President Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father in 2003 and has been in power ever since despite periodic rigged elections. It doesn't have a free press, and its economy is state-dominated; it's also involved in a festering conflict with neighboring Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh, a landlocked Armenian enclave handed to Azerbaijan by Stalin in 1923 but made autonomous. Armenia won the territory in 1994 after a protracted war and conflict has scarcely stopped since.

Azerbaijan is also a country that has a friendly relationship with the U.S. In 2014, it received more than $64 million in U.S. aid, both civilian and military. The aid kept coming steadily as Aliyev's dictatorship thrived thanks to high oil prices.

In May and June, 2013, a delegation of 11 U.S. Congress members and 32 congressional staff members visited Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to attend a conference called "U.S.-Azerbaijan: Vision for the Future." It was ostensibly funded by two non-profit groups, from which the U.S. legislators and their staff were allowed to accept travel. The OCE found, however, that the non-profits received the money for the trip from the Azerbaijani state-owned oil company, Socar, and one of the groups -- paid $750,000 by Socar -- had been set up just one month prior to the conference. While in Baku, all the U.S. legislators received "rugs of various sizes and value" as gifts, and some legislators and staffers also got crystal tea sets and silk scarves.

It must have been clear to everyone concerned that the conference was a government-sponsored event. Aliyev even made an appearance. In July, 2015, however, the congressional Committee on Ethics cleared all participants in the junket of any wrongdoing, noting that "either on their own initiative or at the committee's recommendation, all members have voluntarily remedied, or committed to remedy, any impermissible gifts received." As for the travel expenses, the committee claimed the legislators and their aides couldn't have known they'd come from the Azerbaijani government. In any case, the expenses had been preapproved by the committee.

Azeri officials must be relieved at the OCE vote: They will be able to keep their "caviar diplomacy" -- applied in Europe as well as the U.S. -- out of the public limelight.

The U.S. has certain geopolitical reasons to be friendly with Azerbaijan. It is an alternative to Russia as a source of oil and gas for Turkey and Europe and, as a predominantly Muslim but secular state, an ally in the fight against terrorist groups like Islamic State. It is, however, a tyranny in a permanent state of war with far more liberal Armenia -- a country Freedom House ranks "partly free" compared with "not free" Azerbaijan. But despite its large and vocal diaspora, Armenia is a Russian ally, part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's pet economic project, the Eurasian Union free trade area. Under recent U.S. administrations, that closeness to Moscow has been a bigger sin than Baku's imprisonment of government critics.

Aliyev has paid generously to drive these advantages home to U.S. politicians. It employs the Podesta Group, led by the brother of key Democratic operative John Podesta, for $45,000 a month plus expenses, and it is unusually creative in its lobbying activities. It's hard to tell whether it's this creativity and generosity or any real U.S. strategic interest that makes the U.S. overlook the country's brutal dictatorship. A combination of both is likely: Without the "caviar diplomacy," Azerbaijan might be considered too small to defy declared U.S. values and principles for its sake.

When Trump tweeted Tuesday that Congress has more important things to do than to weaken the ethics watchdog, he was probably not thinking about the Azeribaijan investigation. Under Donald Trump's administration, the U.S. is probably going to drop the pretence of pursuing a values-based policy. The Trump organization has done business in Azerbaijan, partnering with the son of the country's transport minister to build a hotel in Baku. Trump canceled the Baku licensing deal after his election. But the ever-creative Azerbaijani embassy in Washington recently picked Trump's D.C. hotel as the venue for one of its trademark events "celebrating religious freedom and diversity."

If the Trump administration continues U.S. support of Aliyev, at least it will be seen as openly and perhaps cynically calculating. Trump has no declared problems with authoritarian regimes. But Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans in Congress, who profess to stand on values, will appreciate some quiet about accepting junkets from Aliyev. The 2013 congressional delegation was a bipartisan group. The public wouldn't have found out about the trip if not for the pesky OCE.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-03/azeri-oil-money-flooded-the-washington-swamp

[Yervant1]

http://panorama.am/news_images/571/1711453_3/f588093c5a8948_588093c5a8986.thumb.jpg

Society 14:25 19/01/2017 Region

Iranian official: The future generations of Azerbaijan will consider Iranians as their enemies

“The leadership of Azerbaijan makes efforts to write a history for the past which is nothing more than a distortion and falsification of history,” Advisor to the Deputy for International Affairs of the Head of Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Organization Seyed Reza Mir-Mohammadi noted the aforesaid. Panorama.am reports citing Arannyuz.ir Iranian news agency.

Turing to the policy of falsifying the historical facts run by Azerbaijan the Iranian high ranking official has particularly noted the following: “History can only be studied not rewritten. Currently we need to study the history of the Caucasus and namely the one referring to Azerbaijan. And we must take a responsibility to carry out that study. The younger generation of Azerbaijan is raised with these ideas and that challenge has turned into a real threat. If this policy of Azerbaijan continues the future generations of the Azerbaijani people will consider us (the Iranian people) as their enemies.”

http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/01/19/Iranian-official-future-generation-Azerbaijan-Iran-enemies/1711453

[Yervant1]

Council of Europe urged to investigate Azerbaijan bribery allegations

14:24, 03 Feb 2017

Siranush Ghazanchyan

http://www.armradio.am/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/PACE1-620x300.jpg

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption, after allegations that a former senior member was paid €2.39m to engineer votes to protect the kleptocratic regime of Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, The Guardian reports.

Pieter Omtzigt, a centre-right Dutch parliamentarian, is urging PACE leaders to launch a “deep, thorough investigation by an independent panel” that makes its findings public.

“We see a lot of suspicious outcomes of votes and procedures on Azerbaijan,” Omtzigt told the Guardian. The Dutch Christian Democrat is the co-author of a resolution calling for an urgent investigation and overhaul of the assembly’s code of conduct.

The Council of Europe, which was created in 1949 to protect democracy and promote the rule of law, has 47 members including Russia and Turkey. Azerbaijan joined in 2001, but observers have long raised questions about the parliamentary assembly’s weak response to ballot-box stuffing and human rights violations in the oil-rich country.

Human rights groups have blamed “caviar diplomacy”, gifts of gold, silver, silk carpets and the regional fishy delicacy, which are showered on visiting dignitaries to the capital, Baku.

The latest allegations are centred on Italian politician Luca Volontè, the former chair of the centre-right group in the parliamentary assembly. He is being investigated by the Milan public prosecutor’s office for allegedly accepting €2.39m in bribes, in exchange for working for Azerbaijan in the parliamentary assembly. Human rights groups allege he played a key role in orchestrating the defeat of a highly critical report on the abuse of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in 2013. Volontè denies any wrongdoing.

Many senior parliamentarians have warned that failure to carry out an independent investigation would erode the credibility of the human rights body, which was inspired by Winston Churchill, and sends election monitors to every corner of Europe. “It is not credible if you tell other countries to be open and transparent if you do not investigate credible allegations of vote-rigging,” Omtzigt said.

One fifth of PACE’s 324 parliamentarians have signed Omtzigt’s resolution, which states that “recent, serious and credible allegations of grave misconduct” risk undermining public confidence in the assembly. The signatories are a cross-party coalition, drawn from 25 countries, including the UK, France, Germany, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Greece and Ukraine.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2017/02/03/council-of-europe-urged-to-investigate-azerbaijan-bribery-allegations/

[Yervant1]

Analyst: EU sends wrong message, rolling out red carpet before Aliyev

22:08, 06.02.2017

Region:World News, Azerbaijan
Theme: Politics, Analytics

“The European Union’s ‘quiet diplomacy’ just got much quieter… Remarkably, Brussels dragged its feet to inform the public of an upcoming visit by Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev, who is coming to town on Monday (6 February) to personally inaugurate negotiations on a new EU-Azerbaijan partnership agreement,” writes Giorgi Gogia, Director for the South Caucasus, in his article published in the EU Observer.

According to the author, the lack of transparency in Baku is not a surprise any more. The Azerbaijani authorities are extremely hostile to their critics, opposition activists, journalists, and other dissidents.

" But the secrecy around the visit suggests that Baku’s deeply problematic approaches to transparency are rubbing off on the EU. Is the EU really so quick to set aside its own commitments to transparency and accountability? Apparently so. " writes the author.

As Gogia notes, the officials have been too secretive during a dozen official meetings in Brussels on January 26 and 27 about Aliev’s visit. “Once we understood it was in the works, and pressed for some, any, information, officials and diplomats flatly refused to share the date of the visit,” he said.

One of the diplomats even confessed, that the agreement about the information about the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not come out of the holy walls of European foreign policy service. According to him, they learned about Aliyev’s visit last week only, after the agenda of the European Commission president had been updated.

" Does the EU fear publicity of Aliyev’s trip to Brussels and inevitable criticism of Azerbaijan’s human rights record and the EU’s failure in pressing for reforms? It may fear it, but that criticism would be well-earned,” considers Gogia.

In his viewpoint, the EU seems not to be much concerned about the criticism addressed to Azerbaijan in regard to the attacks on human rights defenders. Instead, it manifests a great interest in receiving economic benefits from the relationship with Baku. “As EU officials quietly prepare to roll out the red carpet and treat the Azerbaijani strongman with fanfare, it should make sure that this deepening relationship is the one adhering to its own principles of ‘democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms,’ as it committed to in all of its negotiations with third party countries,” concludes Gogia.

https://news.am/eng/news/371772.html

[MosJan]

MINSK, Belarus (A.W.)— On Feb. 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin’s appeal and upheld the decision of the Prosecutor General’s office to extradite him to Azerbaijan. Lapshin’s lawyer, Natalya Shekina, said that the extradition will take place as soon as a date is announced, according to a report by Yerevan-based Armenpress news.

Alexander Lapshin

Shekina added that Lapshin’s wife has requested additional protection from the Department of Citizen and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus. Lapshin’s wife has also filed a complaint to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations.

Lapshin faces criminal prosecution in Azerbaijan for “illegal border crossing” and “public calls against the country.” Following the Supreme Court decision, Nagorno-Karabagh (NKR/Artsakh) President Spokesperson Davit Babayan said that Lapshin’s extradition is a “challenge” to Israel.

“The decision causes serious damage to the credibility of the country,” Babayan told reporters on Feb. 7, adding, “We deem the decision of Belarus as scandalous, disgraceful, and illegal.”

Babayan said that he is confident that the people of Belarus do not support the decision and believes that Israel should suspend cooperation with Azerbaijan, especially since the life of Lapshin will be under serious threat in Azerbaijani prison.

Earlier in the day, the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of South America delivered a letter of protest to the Ambassador of Belarus in Argentina regarding the decision to extradite Lapshin.

“We wish to convey our most sincere concern over the decision of the Republic of Belarus to grant the extradition of the digital journalist Alexander Lapshin to the Republic of Azerbaijan,” read the letter signed by the Armenian National Committee of South America and Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) of South America.

[MosJan]

The Belarus Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a government decision to extradite a popular Israeli travel blogger to Azerbaijan, where he will face criminal prosecution for insulting the leader of the Central Asian nation and making unauthorized visits to its disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Alexander Lapshin, 40, could be handed over to Baku authorities as early as Tuesday, reports in local news sites said.

Lapshin, who holds Russian, Israeli, and Ukrainian citizenship, appealed the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office decision to extradite him to Baku at a lower court last month.

The Minsk City Court rejected his January 26 appeal seeking to overturn the extradition order, prompting Lapshin to turn to the Supreme Court.

No reason was given for either court’s rulings, and both hearings were held behind closed doors.

A last-minute application for political asylum filed to the Minsk City Court by Lapshin’s lawyer was likely to be rejected as well, Army Radio reported.

Israeli officials have sought to prevent Lapshin’s extradition, but are reportedly not optimistic at the chances of success as Baku officials have made it clear the government has “no intention” of withdrawing the request.

The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman confirmed to The Times of Israel on Tuesday that Jerusalem officials were aware of the developments in Lapshin’s case.

“We are following the developments closely, and are in contact with all relevant parties through diplomatic and consular channels,” Emmanuel Nahshon said.

In December, Azerbaijan issued an international arrest warrant for Lapshin on charges of “violating the state border” over several visits to Nagorno-Karabakh along the Armenian border without coordinating with the authorities in the capital, Baku.

Reports in Hebrew-language media said Lapshin had also published Russian-language blogs critical of Azerbaijani President Ilham Alyev.

According to Azerbaijan’s Report AZ news agency, the General Prosecutor’s Office in Baku said that between April 2011 and October 2012, Lapshin “entered the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, promoted illegal regime in his own website… named the Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state. He has also called on infringement of territorial integrity of internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan.”

His wife, Ekaterina Kopylova, told the Haaretz daily last month that Israeli officials have been denied visits to him in jail. And MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union) has warned the Foreign Ministry that Lapshin’s life could be endangered if he is extradited.

Lapshin’s arrest in Minsk on December 13 at the request of the Azerbaijani government coincided with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rare visit to central Asian nation.

A secular state that has long had warm relations with Israel, the overwhelmingly Muslim Azerbaijan is one of Israel’s main trading partners, buying weapons systems and providing the Jewish state with the lion’s share of its oil.

During his visit, Netanyahu ahiled cooperation with Baku as a positive example of Muslim-Jewish coexistence.

Earlier this year, Armenian forces claimed Baku deployed Israeli-made kamikaze drones in a battle against them in the ongoing fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Raphael Ahren contributed to this report

[MosJan]

Russian Israeli Blogger Alexander Lapshin’s Impending Extradition Latest Example of Aliyev’s Crackdown on Free Media

NEW YORK/ WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committees of Greater Washington (ANC of GW) and New York (ANC of New York) held simultaneous protests in front of Belarus’ diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. and New York City on Jan. 29, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin.

http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/lapshin_demo_nyc1.jpg

[MosJan]

Belarus Extradites Russian Blogger To Azerbaijan



MINSK -- Russian blogger Aleksandr Lapshin was flown from Minsk to Baku over objections from Moscow that he be sent Russia.

Lapshin's extradition to Azerbaijan on February 7 occurred hours after the Belarusian Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a lower court to send Lapshin to Baku.

The Russian blogger, who also has Israeli citizenship, is wanted by Azerbaijan on allegations of supporting the independence of Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Belarusian Deputy State Prosecutor Alyaksey Stuk signed the extradition order on January 18.

Lapshin, who lives in Moscow and writes a Russian-language travel blog, was detained in Minsk in mid-December on the basis of Baku's extradition request.

Azerbaijani prosecutors accuse Lapshin of illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh in 2011 and 2012 and calling for the recognition of the breakaway region's independence by posting two statements online.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Minsk to "unconditionally" release Lapshin.

"Lapshin should not be jailed for expressing his opinions or traveling to a disputed region," Nina Ognianova, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a January 13 statement.

If Lapshin is convicted in Baku, he could face up to eight years in prison there.

 

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

Ռուսաստանում հարյուրավոր ադրբեջանցիներ են ձերբակալվել. (Տեսանյութ)

14.02.2017 Andranik Փաստեր 0

Դերբենտի ոստիկանության քաղաքային վարչությունում պահվում են Ադրբեջանի ավելի քան 200 քաղաքացիներ, հաղորդում է Ազադլիք ռադիոկայանը։

Ըստ այդ տեղեկության` նրանք ձերբակալվել են անօրինական կերպով շինարարության մեջ աշխատելու համար։ Դա պարզվել է իշխանությունների կողմից անցկացված ստուգումների արդյունքում։

Ձերբակալվածների կողմից սոցցանցերում տարածված տեսանյութի համաձայն` նրանց արդեն երկու օր է պահում են ինչ-որ մարզադահլիճում և ոչինչ չեն ասում։ Ըստ վերջին տեղեկությունների` նրանց ազատ են արձակել, բայց նրանց գործերն ուղարկվել են դատարան` միգրացիոն օրենսդրությունը խախտելու համար։
Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ http://www.aravot.am/2017/02/14/855211/